ialottery blog

Another $1 Million Scratch Ticket Winner

Not many scratch tickets have pay-offs in the millions of dollars, but the Iowa Lottery has two scratch tickets that have top prizes of $1 million: “Set For Life” and “$35 Million Cash Spectacular.” Just recently we had another lucky player come forward to claim the fifth top prize in our Set For Life scratch game.

We met Richard Bauder, 25, when he claimed his prize at the Iowa Lottery's headquarters in Des Moines last week. Bauder posed for a photo with Lottery CEO Terry Rich as he was presented with his ceremonial check for $1 million.

Bauder, who lives in Ankeny, bought his winning ticket at a local Casey's on W. First St.

Set For Life is a $20 scratch game with eight top prizes of $1 million. Players who win the top prize have the option of receiving it as an annuity or lump-sum payment. If the winner chooses to take the annuity, he/she will be paid $40,000 per year for a period of 25 years.
 
After speaking with his financial advisor, Bauder decided to receive his winnings in one lump sum.

Not to worry, you still have a shot at winning a million dollars because there are three top prizes of $1 million remaining in Set For Life, along with several hundred other prizes ranging from $100 to $10,000.

Also, the $35 Million Cash Spectacular scratch game has three top prizes still available.

Winners In Midwest Millions Drawing

And the latest $500,000 winner in our Midwest Millions game is … a nurse from eastern Iowa!

Kim Hertel of Washington was in disbelief when we called her today to tell her she’d won the top prize in the Midwest Millions drawing in Topeka, Kan. Click here to listen to an interview with Kim. 

A central Iowa woman also won a $10,000 prize in today’s drawing. The Midwest Millions event was held this morning at a mall in Topeka, Kan. About 94,000 entries were received for it, so today’s winners definitely beat the odds!

The winners were:
 $500,000  Kim Hertel, Washington, Iowa 
  $10,000   Ronnie Burnett, Leavenworth, Kan.
  $10,000   James Hess, Clay Center, Kan.
  $10,000   Deberia Blair, Topeka, Kan.
  $10,000   Diane Robinson, Indianola, Iowa
  $10,000   Mark Loftin, Elk City, Kan.

There will be another drawing in Midwest Millions on April 16 in Des Moines, so if you didn’t win a prize in today’s contest, we hope you’ll try again! For more information about Midwest Millions and how to enter the drawings, click here.

Offsets Explained

It can be an uncomfortable subject to tackle, but we’ve had a lot of questions about set-asides (commonly known as offsets) lately, so we’re taking this opportunity to explain them further.
Sometimes winners come into our offices who owe money to the state for whatever reason; sometimes money is owed for judicial fines, court costs, child support, etc. By law, the Iowa Lottery is required to withhold those debts from the player’s winnings.

Here’s how it works:

An offset database that is available to all state agencies and even some city agencies (if they’re owed money). Within state government, there is an offset department that collects the debts and distributes the money to the appropriate agencies when they are paid.

At the lottery, we’re required to run our winners’ information against that database before we can write them a check. If the computer finds a set-aside in the database, that money is automatically deducted from the check. Our validations associates never get to see the database, and aren’t even aware of any set-asides until the check has printed. It is an automatic process that is required by Iowa law. 

If players feel they no longer owe money to the state, they are given a contact within the offset department or the agency requesting the set-aside to investigate the case and possibly refund that money.

Tech The Halls Winners Announced

We’ve held the drawing, completed all the procedures and now it’s time to announce the winners in our “Tech The Halls” holiday bonus promotion!

Two hundred prizes from Sony® are on the line along with 10 prizes of $10,000!

Click here to see the winning numbers and names we selected in the drawing, or click here to access videos that give the results. There were more than 405,000 entries in the promotion, so a lot of people wanted the prizes involved!   

If your entry was selected, you’ll need to present to the Lottery the signed ticket that you used to enter the promotion, along with a completedclaim form. Hurry, the deadline is 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 4!

And for those of you who do not see your number on the winning numbers lists, please hold on to your tickets. Please keep your tickets until all results are official and all prizes have been claimed. So, until you see that every prize has been claimed for the ticket you entered, hold on to your tickets.

Tax Forms For Lottery Winnings

When you win a prize of more than $600 in an Iowa Lottery game, the lottery sends to you a form that you will need to use to file your taxes for that calendar year. The document is called a W-2G form and it lists the gross amount you have won in lottery prizes during the year as well as any federal and state taxes that were withheld from those winnings.  

As you can imagine, with the millions of winners that the lottery has each year, it takes some time to process all of those forms and get them ready to send out. The Iowa Lottery begins to review the records of its winners and prepare the documents as soon as each calendar year ends.

The forms must be mailed by Jan. 31 of the new year and the lottery always meets that deadline. We try to have the forms processed before then if possible, but they are always mailed out no later than Jan. 31.

Winning Numbers Lines To Be Consolidated

For many years, the Iowa Lottery has maintained three separate winning number lines in an effort to make the information available via a local phone call as far and as wide as possible.

However, times are changing and so are we.   With the popularity of mobile phones and long-distance service bundled as part of your service through your local phone company, we thought the time was right to consolidate to one winning number line. Starting January 1 players will all call the same phone number to hear the latest winning numbers: 515-323-4633. 

We're hoping our players will find it easier to remember just one number.  Additionally, we're going to realize cost savings of a few thousand dollars per year.

Don't forget - there are many additional ways to find out the winning numbers.  Log on to www.ialottery.com or sign up for our text messaging service to have the numbers delivered to you the day after each drawing.  You can also visit one of our retailers for winning numbers.

Two Powerball Jackpot Winners & Washington, Iowa

An eastern Iowa community apparently now has bragging rights to two Powerball jackpot winners!

The Iowa connection to the most recent winner may not have been obvious at first, but the details are coming out courtesy of the Washington Evening Journal. Click here to read the Journal’s article about Dr. William Steele, a Florida dermatologist who won the $189 million Powerball jackpot in the Oct. 3 drawing. Steele’s Powerball jackpot win was the first for the state of Florida.

The Iowa connection? Well, the Journal reports that Steele grew up in Washington, Iowa. And Washington just so happens to be home to Ed Brown, Iowa’s very first Powerball jackpot winner!

Brown won his prize back in December 1992, when he split a $10.4 million jackpot with a woman from Missouri.

And this story is just one more example of the fact that it truly is a tiny, tiny world!

A Run Of Luck In Davenport

We caught up with the folks who work at a Davenport convenience store that’s had quite a run of luck when it comes to lottery winners. Check out the video to see why they think customers at their store have been on a winning streak!

Winner’s Warmth Shines Through

I decided to backup my last blog entry with another winner’s story because 1.) it’s always fun to hear winners’ stories and 2.) the warmth of this winner just comes shining through.

Richard Twohy (pronounced TOO’-ee) of Iowa City knew three months ago that he’d won a $250,000 lottery prize, but decided to wait to claim it until he could make some financial decisions beforehand. We tell all our winners to take their time and make sure they have all the details worked out before they claim their prize, so we were happy to see a winner who’d done just that.

Twohy won the top prize of $250,000 in the “Bingo Times 10” instant-scratch game. He claimed his prize yesterday at our office in Cedar Rapids and talked about the help he plans to provide for his family because of his good fortune. Click here to hear Richard tell his story!

Congrats again, Richard! There are six top prizes left in Bingo Times 10, so we’re looking forward to meeting more $250,000 winners!            
 

You Never Know, It Could Be True!

I just love this winner's story. And you never know, there really might have been some magic force at work there!

Carol Weyer of Des Moines said she couldn't believe the coincidence that was happening as she claimed the $10,000 top prize in our "Roll 'Em" scratch game.

She claimed her prize at the Lottery's headquarters office in Des Moines on a Thursday afternoon. And just that morning, one of her friends had sent her an e-mail predicting that she’d have good fortune.

Weyer said she kept thinking about that e-mail as she claimed her prize. Like I said, you just never know!